Need help with data recovery

Hi,
Recently while organizing my desk I put the wrong power cord in my Seagate Backup Plus Desktop 5tb drive. I had a funny smell, realized what was going on and unplugged it. The drive didn't spin, click or anything after putting in right cable cord.

I used a sata to USB 3 docking station to confirm that it was still not working, not spinning at all.
A friend replaced the control board and it started spinning like usual, no clicking or weird sound. Now it's not getting recognized my windows, my friend is saying master boot record might be corrupt or deleted.

Do u guys know of any data recovery software I can use to recover data. It's is NTFS file system USB drive.

Professional data recover guys are saying $300 is least they charge for anything doesn't matter how small the problem might be.

Thanks

 

Well, first off, *don't power up the drive again*! The more you try, the more likely you'll cross the line of never recovering the data.

That said, after trying all of the above and you still can't get the data, the professionals are about your only option at this point. You have to ask yourself if $300+ is worth it for the 5TB of data on that drive. If you have another backup, obviously just pull from that instead. But, if this is your only copy (good idea to have multiple backups for this sort of situation), then you might have to break the wallet out.

 

TestDisk works pretty well, although while it might recover most of your lost stuff, you'll be left with odd file names for everything.

 

Couple problems here.
1. Switching control board is not a good fix unless it is the exact same type and match to the original.
2. Corrupted or Damaged MBR means nothing of recoverable data will be recoverable.
3. $300 is low estimate for what might go to 1K-if they can't get it to be seen or recognized it most likely dead.
4. Extreme damage is almost "0" recovery so don't get your hopes up.

 

There is a tool called DfS that can repair firmware issues on Seagate SATA HDDs and also do hardware diagnostics. You can check the head and PCB status with it and maybe if the problem is firmware compatibility with the new pcb you can restore it. It sells for around 60$ on Amazon and ebay. Here is a video where they use it to repair another common firmware issue on a seagate HDD

 

If it's actually damaged inside you may be SOL but the spinning is a good sign. Unfortunately it's likely still only recoverable by the data recover guys, and $300 does not sound terribly unusual.

 

More likely it's because the control board no longer matches the disk. With most drives you also have to swap the firmware eeprom of the old pcb to the new one. After that it will be recognised and the data should be accessible.

The procedure is identical to that of the system bios or vbios, so with a bit of soldering skills it shouldn't be too hard. There's no need for a programmer either since the original firmware is probably fine. If not then the tool posted by VAIO_for_Ever can help, but it will only be useful on the old pcb's eeprom, so this has to be transferred to the working board first.

Look for an 8-pin chip with a '24' or '25' somewhere in the markings:

Spoiler: example from an ebay seller (hence the spelling)

Can also send both boards to me, if you like. Have done a few before and it isn't much of an effort.